Little Cinder
by SofluwYerg
Summary: Cinder Fall was a girl with big dreams. Big aspirations - ones that dwarfed her four foot five body, some might say. She had ambitions that eclipsed even the mightiest of kingdoms, a vision of the world where she, the miniature nobody from the streets of Vale, stood at the top. Now, if only anybody would actually *listen* to her without bursting into laughter!


**Ch. 1**

It was a beautiful Summer's day. The sun was shining, Lien changed hands, and little children idly played in the parks, chased by their exasperated parents.

By all accounts, a day like any other in the City of Vale.

In mere moments, however, an unspeakable horror would soon emerge from within its supposedly _safe_ walls - an evil so insidious it would cast a shadow across Remnant for all eternity. Civilisations that had withstood even the test of time would topple like dominoes, and the decrepit authorities that upheld their laws would be unable to lift so much as a single moulding finger to stop it.

That horror's name was Cinder Fall, and her legacy would start in the tiny store across the street from her.

She stretched her fingers, feeling the joints pop into place; readying them for the heinous misdeeds they would soon enact.

The terrible crime…

Of _shoplifting._

She had to hold down the urge to let out a despicable cackle - after all, she was in the middle of the street and it wouldn't do to have her plans ruined by any random plebeians passing through the street.

And oh, those plans… To call those plans detailed would have been an understatement. They were, simply put, _machiavellian._ She had staked out the location for days, mapping out the exact steps she would take through the aisles, practiced her unassuming little girl act down to the most minute detail, and planned her escape route in enough depth to cause Vale's most notorious criminals to drop to their knees in utter _shame._

She would go into the store.

Take what she was after.

And then run away very quickly.

The _perfect crime._

 _And not a single thing can prevent it from going wrong_ , she thought, taking a confident step toward her target. The first step on her path towards becoming the scourge of civilisation.

Someone screamed. No, not someone - _something_ \- the inhuman screech of tires against tarmac.

"Kid! Get outta the way!" someone shouted at her, while others gasped and stood back.

She turned her head to the right, and caught the sun glinting on a painted metal surface.

… _Oh._

It looked like her first step had put her in the path of a moving truck.

Her eyes barely had a moment to widen in surprise before the behemoth of a vehicle had moved right past the spot where she had just been standing.

She let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding as the worthless passers-by began to crowd around her. The driver of the lorry that had ever so nearly cut her conquest short was among them. They asked her if she was okay, if she had been hurt anywhere, where her parents were - and she didn't care one bit about any of them.

"It would appear you have saved my life," she murmured, turning to the person holding her up by the back of her shirt, and the crowd fell silent.

"For that, you have my gratitude. As a result, when I have finished my conquest, you will have a place in my new world or -"

Her words died in her throat as her eyes met the neat blue uniform and smug, grinning face of her most hated enemy.

"O - oh." she stuttered, turning away in an instant, "O-Officer Azure - h-hello. It appears I somehow missed you - my apologies for n-not greeting you earlier."

"Go on," the woman drawled, "Why don't you finish that sentence you were just gonna say? All about the favours you're gonna give me when you take over Remnant, right?"

Cinder laughed nervously.

"Wh-what? N-no, th-that's ridiculous!"

Someone from the cluster of annoyance around them stepped forward - a large man in a cap. The one driving that truck.

"Uh, do you know this girl, officer?"

He looked rather burly. Perhaps enough to fight off a police officer - perfectly suited for Cinder's purposes.

"Absolutely. Her name's Cinder Fall, and she's been loitering around this shop every day for the past week - as for _why_ , given her past record I can safely guess she was going to steal from that shop right across the road."

"I - I don't know what this s-strange lady is t-talking about!" Cinder yelped, expertly feigning fear, "My n-name isn't even C-Cinder!"

The man raised an eyebrow.

The policewoman sighed, and brought out her badge.

"Officer Lapis Azure, of the Vale Police Department." she said, "And I've been dealing with this little squirt on and off for about six months."

The trucker nodded hastily, all suspicion in his gaze completely removed. Cinder slumped.

… Blast. And that plan had almost worked! Stupid badges and their stupid _authenticity._ When all of the world's powers were under her heel, police departments would be the first things to go.

Eventually, through both waning interest and prompting from Azure, the crowd of insects scuttled away to their day jobs or back to their families, leaving only Cinder hanging off of the policewoman's arm.

"You'll suffer for this slight against me. Mark my words!"

"What, when you've become the _Queen of Evil?_ "

Cinder flinched.

"I - I gave up on using that title. It - it was too tacky and it lacked class."

The policewoman laughed, long and mocking, then -

Oh no. She'd placed her fist on Cinder's head. That could only mean one thing.

Cinder screamed as Azure exacted torture upon her that only a _lunatic_ would call affectionate. Who even decided that an act as brutal as rubbing one's fist against an unsuspecting scalp would be called something as unassuming as a ' _noogie'?_

"S-stop!" Cinder whimpered commandingly, "I - I - I order you to cease this - this police brutality!"

"Giving me orders, huh?" Azure chuckled, lifting her up and draping her across her shoulder - the ultimate gesture of humiliation.

"That can wait until _after_ you're four foot five."

 _T-the nerve!_

"D-do not mock my height, wench!" Cinder yelled, voice filled with righteous fury, "It only condenses the malice!"

"Pretty sure all it does is make you look cute, kid."

Cinder tried to find the words to reply to such an insult - but they came out of her mouth as a clumsy splutter. She instead went for the better alternative - drawing her leg back and placing a kick into to woman's ribs.

All it did was make the woman laugh harder.

 _H-how could this one pitiful member of the police force be so powerful!?_

Cinder slumped, defeated. Thwarted. Her machinations stopped dead in their tracks.

"So, you've made a fool of me once again, Azure." she grumbled, "I've been bested and humiliated."

Azure let out a long sigh.

"Yep."

Cinder raised an eyebrow. Why wasn't she making a ridiculous joke like she usually would?

… Wait. Could it be that her repeated failures to keep Cinder in prison were finally beginning to demoralise her?

A grin began to reappear on Cinder's face.

"What's the matter, _Azure_? Has the knowledge that, no matter what you do, I'll only come back stronger gotten to you at last? Are you _tired_ of the monotonous trudge to the police station, only to find out once you arrive that I'm _still_ too young to hold and that I've nowhere else to go? Has your will been _eroded_ by seeing me walk out of that door onto the streets _every single time?_ "

There was a long moment of silence.

She was _right._ An evil laugh begin to escape her throat.

"Pathetic! To think that one of the people's defenders would give up so easily!"

"I know, right?" she replied, "It really _is_ pathetic."

Cinder's eyes widened. There wasn't so much as a hint of the typical mocking edge in her voice.

They widened further as Azure came to a complete stop.

"What, are we not continuing to the police station?"

"... Nope."

Cinder jolted as a wave of hot air blasted her in the face, and she was placed down on a stool. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light, before from the indistinct blur she began to make out pots, pans, and boiling water.

She was at… A _ramen_ stand?

She turned to Azure, who had just sat down next to her.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"That store you were about to rob was a grocery store."

"So? What has that got to do with anyth-"

Cinder's words were cut off by her stomach letting out a loud growl that could likely have been heard across the entire street.

 _Treacherous organ! Wasn't your alliegance supposed to lie with_ me _!?_

"I rest my case," the police officer said as she slid a menu over to her.

"I may be weakened by hunger, but I am not so pitiful that I'd accept handouts from -"

"She'll have what I'm having."

The wrinkled old prune at the counter raised an eyebrow, but knew better than to question it. He set a pan of water over his stove, and before long, there were two steaming bowls of noodles in front of them.

Cinder eyed her bowl suspiciously.

There was nothing outwardly untrustworthy about them. It was noodles, and a varied assortment of vegetables along with some meat floating in broth - and that was saying nothing of the scent, which was _rather_ nice.

That counted for nothing, however.

"It's not gonna jump out and bite you, kid."

Cinder couldn't just _accept_ food from her worst enemy. It could be poisoned, or laced with laxatives, or drugged, or simply _disgusting_ \- but - but…

But it looked _so good…_

Nervously, she reached forward with her chopsticks, drawing them ever closer to the broth, then nervously reached down and picked out a single strand. Slowly, she drew it away from the bowl - and into her waiting mouth.

And then what felt like an inferno promptly started within.

 _She'd been had! The food was laced with the most insidious poison of all - spices!_

She fumbled for her glass of water, and downed it in a single gulp in a desperate attempt to reverse the effects of the policewoman's devilish trick.

"How dare you fill my food with this - this - fiery hell juice!" she mumbled through her teeth as water began to well in her eyes.

"What, can't handle the heat?" she joked, before slurping a generous portion of the noodles with ease that made Cinder scowl, "Is that the best the world's future ruler can manage?"

The officer turned from her own bowl to see Cinder shoving noodles into her face like some sort of ape, then chuckled softly.

"... You really are a kid, aren't you?"

Cinder took a minor break from her eating to glare in Azure's direction, which only made her smile.

They remained this way for a few minutes; Azure quietly eating her noodles, and Cinder not so quietly eating hers.

It was the policewoman who finally decided to break the silence.

"Listen, Cinder…" she began, "I've something important to talk about, okay?"

Cinder took a brief pause from gorging herself on the brothy ambrosia in front of her and looked to the woman's face, eyebrows furrowed in curiosity.

"I'm getting a promotion. I've been working hard for it for a while, and I'm glad to get it - but," she took a brief pause in the middle of her sentence to let out a long, tired sigh, "I'm going to be moving precinct. And -"

Cinder cocked her head to the side as the woman fell silent once again.

"- And that thing you were talking about earlier? I've been thinking about it for a while and you're right. I can't call myself a police officer if I just let you walk out on the streets all on your own again."

Cinder felt her chest puff out a little from the newfound pride residing within it. Of course this woman shouldn't be proud of letting her loose on the innocent people of Vale! It was the job of the police force to protect the populace, after all.

The woman began to scratch the back of her neck nervously.

"Well, I was thinking - when I move, I'm probably going to have a nice, new apartment, and there's gonna be enough room for two people. So… How about you come with? A _keep your nemesis_ closer kind of deal. And you could get food like this every day, too!"

Cinder paused for a moment, taken aback.

Well, the offer of noodles was tempting, but giving in to temptation would only be her downfall.

"Why would I do that?" she asked blankly.

The police officer looked down at the table, shoulders slumped.

"Yeah…" she muttered, "I shoulda figured. Why _would_ you do that?"

Cinder couldn't help as a wicked smile spread across her face.

"What is it? So easily giving up after your attempt to lure me into containment with this delectable lure? You're not at your sharpest today, Officer Azure!"

She waited, expecting Azure to retort jovially like she always did - but received nothing. Instead, the policewoman had begun to intently scrawl something onto a small sheet of paper, which she then pressed firmly into Cinder's hand.

"On that piece of paper's my new address - and if you ever change your mind, you can come there. Okay?"

She then attempted to ruffle her hand in Cinder's hair; an attempt which, despite Cinder's best efforts, succeeded. Then, after placing some Lien on the counter, she strolled off into the night.

Had Cinder not known better, she'd have said that - for just a moment - Officer Azure looked _sad._ The notion was ridiculous, of course: any police officer, let alone her arch-nemesis, could never feel _pity_ for the person who would soon become their tyrannical overlord.

 _However…_

Cinder looked to the crumpled note in her hand as she walked down the streets, the stand long since abandoned.

On it was, true to the poor police officer's word, an address. No doubt a real one.

Officer Azure had made a grave mistake, one that she would eventually see the full ramifications of. Now, when Cinder had claimed her rightful place at the top of the world, she would know exactly where to find her greatest enemy - and make her _pay_ for the humiliation she had had Cinder endure. She could hear her screams echoing around her skull already.

She cackled maniacally into the cold and night air.

A dog barked, and a house across the street closed its curtain. Outside of that, the night was unresponsive. No running and no screaming.

 _No matter. They would one day regret it._

She took a turn around the corner, and into an alleyway out behind a restaurant; tucked away from human sight, nestled from the common eye. A row of dumpsters lined up against one wall.

Her lair.

Kneeling down, she crawled into the darkness underneath one of them, and felt through it for her ever familiar blanket, air filled with the pungent scent of humanity's filth. The perfect place for a growing evil to fester.

Her hands gripping it at last, she pulled it over her.

 _One day, Azure,_ she thought, clutching the small slip of paper tightly to her chest, _one day, you'll see. Everyone will see. The whole world will bow before Cinder Fall._

* * *

 **A/N:** **So here's a little something I whipped up that I quickly discovered was both ripe with potential, incredibly fun to write and also very, _very_ interesting - a villain who, despite their talents, is hampered by the world's complete inability to take her seriously and also serves as the protagonist of the story. I hope you share my sentiments about it.**

 **I'll be releasing Ch. 16 of From Lawbreaker to Lecturer relatively soon, don't worry! It's nearing completion, and although I want to give you all a date I have absolutely no idea if I'm going to be struck by good ol' writer's block again or not. Not to mention I have just restarted school, so I'm going to be having difficulties keeping up with the new workload and updating in the mean time.**


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